UPTOWN — For the last month, Axis Lab has been working to create a dialogue between the Argyle Street community and the wider Uptown community by offering a diverse variety of free arts education workshops on topics ranging from breakdancing to creative writing.
Using art as a medium, the group can break language barriers to determine issues, convey problems and define what it means to support local "in a dramatically changing neighborhood," said Patricia Nguyen, Executive Director of Axis Lab, which "aims to sustain and build upon the legacy of the Southeast Asian community on Argyle street" through food, design and the arts.
"We wanted to take an art-based approach to bringing people, who wouldn't usually be together, together in the same room," said Nguyen. "We're really trying to center their visions of what they'd like to see in their community" over the next 5-10 years.
The eight-week summer series, Catalyze: Building a Healthy Community, is geared towards bringing people of all ages and backgrounds, who may not be able to afford art programs, together and "cultivate cross-cultural dialogue," according to its Facebook page.
So far the series, has brought guest artists with strong connections to host classes such as beatmaking, yoga, creative writing, breakdancing and theater of the oppressed. From 4-6 p.m. Saturday, the Catalyze series will host its sixth workshop, Sense of Community: Material, Space, People, lead by artist and educator Silvia Gonzalez at Mercy Housing, 4956 N. Sheridan Road.
Using sunprinting to lead the discussion, the event "will explore the interdependent relationships between material, space, and people" and "reflect the different elements community is built on," according to the events description.
Sun prints, or cyanotypes, are created by placing objects on special paper that is then exposed to sunlight. The process was originally used by photographers in the 1800s and later used by architects creating blueprints, according to the Paul Getty Museum.
The five-person staff, which includes an architect, urban planner, visual artist and theatrical artist, hopes to use the art to engage people in their mind, body and spirit on issues such as gentrification, Black Lives Matters protests, police brutality and deportation, said Nguyen adding personal issues are usually connected to a larger systemic political context.
"Each workshop is an introduction to the specific art form" serving as a vehicle to illustrate how very basic issues can becomes a foundation of a large context, she said.
For example, during Free Samples: Beatmaking Unity, Uran Kabashi compared beat making to cooking, where you collect ingredients and prep them before bringing them together. The theater of the oppressed workshop, which was lead by Nguyen, "asks people to take a step back to think about breathing and their relationship to other people in the room."
Following this week's class, Axis Lab will host a workshop on acupuncture.
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